FTDI adapter failed again

[donaldhwong]

Hi Felix,

Sorry to trouble you.

While in the mids of programming, without connecting or disconnecting anything, the FTDI adapter/USB/PC connection no longer recognized by Arduino Studio.

This is the second time, it happened.

Is there a way to fix it?  It should not fail, I mean electronically.  There was no spike, because there was no hardware movement.

Please advise.

Thank you,
Donald

[Felix]

So it's dead?
I've never heard of anything like this.

[donaldhwong]

I never experience anything like this either.

I don't know whether it is dead or not. 

What happened was, when I plug in the USB(with FTDI on the other end) into the PC, the Window system told me that it does not recognize this USB device.  It was working just fine a minute ago, same port, same plug in.

I don't know how else I can test it.  I reboot the PC.  Still no go.  Very strange.

Any idea?

[donaldhwong]

I just had another dumb idea...  tried on my notebook...  LOL

Guess what.....  It is working fine.

Then it must be the problem with my PC USB bub.  I will figure it out.

Sorry that I have troubled you.

Donald

[luisr320]

Try a different USB port on your computer

[TomWS]

I just had another dumb idea...  tried on my notebook...  LOL

Guess what.....  It is working fine.

Then it must be the problem with my PC USB bub.  I will figure it out.

Sorry that I have troubled you.

Donald

I have had problems with FTDI cables plugged into the front panel of my desktop system.  I suspect, but don't have sufficient data to prove, that the power supplied to the front panel USB connectors is weak and when a USB cable with a high capacitance load on the power lines is plugged in, the other USB devices already connected to the front panel get reset, and, in some cases, don't recover properly.  This is not 'supposed' to happen with USB... 

Looking at the cabling for the front panel USB jacks, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the problem.  Sigh, crap systems...

Tom

[donaldhwong]

Hi guys,

thank you for your input.  Is there a way I can resintall the Arduino Studeo's USB driver?

Many Thanks,
Donald

[donaldhwong]

I resintalled USB driver.  It did not help.  However.....

I have two usb ports, each with a cable.  "A" hooked up to a USB Moteino, it works fine.  Another one, "B", hooked up to USB FTDI adapter.  It does not work.

But if I plug "B" into a notebook, it works fine.  Yet, if plug the FTDI to the "A" USB cable, it does not work.

If you have not been confused by all this, please explain to me what is going one.

Crazy..  isn't it...

[Tomega3]

Hi,
Have you tried a short USB cable say only 1 foot long?
I have a USB Moteino R4 and a MoteinoMega with the LowPowerLabs ftdi board.
My USB Moteino works really well with a 1 ft long USB cable, not so good with a 3ft or longer cable.
My Mega with ftdi board works good with a 3ft long cable.

[donaldhwong]

Hi Tomega3,

Thank you so much for this cable length advise.  Guess what.

With a ONE FOOT USB cable, Windows install the device driver again (automatically) and it is working great.

Now it is up to the hardware guys trying to improve the FTDI adapter for long cable.

:-)

[Felix]

It depends which version you have. The old ones were FT232RL and those worked great.
There was a batch of FTDI adapters that used the FT231xs chips without the inline 27ohm resistors on the D+/- traces. They work, and I've not one fail on me, but they might have some side effects similar to what you're describing when used on long/unshielded cables.
All new FTDI adapters and MoteinoUSBs and anything using FT231xs now have the resistors so they should be up to spec.